Friday, August 23, 2013

People, people, people!The original cast recording of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is on youtube. This is a seismic event. Pre-Taylor/Burton, Uta Hagen spits hoarse fire and Arthur Hill takes a less rumpled, more frantic tack than Richard Burton.George Grizzard and Melinda Dillon feel more present than their film counterparts, particularly Dillon, who's drunkenness is more mischievous and less sleepy.This is a great listen. Just great.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

I have been in contact with a time traveller. He has come from the from the far-flung past to lecture on the state of cinema, but I think maybe the pictures he included are wrong?Greetings movie-goers! Welcome to the year 1962.Our theaters are filled with epic stories. Each year these films seem to get longer and more expensive, and each year we delight in watching the tales of our childhood heroes, like El Cid, Spartacus, and Ben-Hur, recreated with more intensity and realism than could ever be dreamed even just a few decades earlier.

El Cid (1961)

It's satisfying to watch our heroes brought to life before us, though sometimes they screw it up, like last summer's reboot of King of Kings, which strayed too far from the gritty Jesus we all know and love. A lot of us Jesus fans were really excited for an accurate movie of the character, but the studio ignored canon for no reason.

King of Kings (1961)

On the plus side, they're not making as many westerns anymore. Good riddance, they were always the same story and they never understood how people fall in love. There were some good ones years ago like Shane, but now they seem more interested in just cramming every famous actor they can into one movie, like that ridiculous How the West Was Won.

Shane (1951)

How the West Was Won (1962)

They're still all over TV, though, like Bonanza and Wagon Train, which is in its millionth season this year.

The long-running Wagon Train

Speaking of TV: In all honesty, if you're looking for a good drama, your best bet is television. With shows like Naked City, Route 66, and The Defenders, movies just can't compete with the greats of TV drama. Even big-time movie directors like Alfred Hitchcock have been making the move to TV.

Big-name Hollywood TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Some movie buffs I know have been talking a lot about the coming revolution of new smaller camera and sound equipment, saying more and more regular people will be able to make their own films without worrying about the big studios or big actors. People mention names like John Cassavetes, Morris Engel, and some kind of "New Wave" coming from France.

John Cassavetes

I don't know. I can't see anything coming from it. Who would want to watch that when they can watch an epic? We have Cleopatra coming out soon. It's apparently got a really big budget and is very long. Everyone's excited for it.